The Greatest Show on Earth

Posted by Sari

It is going on right now. Four years ago about this time I was asleep. I did get up at an ungodly hour to check the result, went back to bed a happy woman, and woke again few hours later to see the farce beginning to unravel.

I don't know if it is the tragi-comical drama of the election show, the way the world has changed after 9/11, the about thirteen months I have altogether spent in US since 2000, or my growing addiction to political punditry, but I am struggling to stay up to see the early projections on Ohio and Florida before turning in.

YLE is showing CBS and Dan Rather but unfortunately with Finnish commentary and punditry ruining the show so that it is unbearable to watch. Okay this is it. I want my digibox and I want it now.

Channel 4 had an election special earlier where they showed selected pieces of Bush and Kerry documentaries and had two pundits commenting on them, and BBC World is, of course, devoting the channel wholly to the election.

I am hoping that the election won't be quite as close as the polls project, and that Kerry takes the Electoral college. I am basing this hope on following all of which I have read in that most reliable of soucres, 'somewhere':
1) Polling apparently has largely ignored people who have only cells. These people tend to be younger and thus (maybe) more socially liberal and more likely to vote Democrat.
2) Depending on the methology, it is possible that "likely voter" polling exludes the voters who did not vote in last elections, and there seems to be a great upsurge of new registered voters intending to use their vote.
3) Traditionaly, 2/3 of the swing vote goes with the Challenger
4) Washington Redskins lost.

Just a few more hours and then we'll see what'll happen...

Comments

[jukkahoo]

I'm calling it a night. It seems like the blasted americans have elected a president the rest of the world didn't deserve. Hate-mongering idiots, gay-bashing rednecks, homophobic born-again dimwits. I'm at loss.

Then again, this may all be just one of my many nightmares. Here's hoping for it...

[Manu]

Unfortunate decision for the Americans and for the rest of the world. Though Bush still needs to face a curse that has lasted twice as long as the one just broken by Red Sox. It is called the 20-year curse cycle. Since 1840, every fifth quadrennial election has produced president that has either died in office for natural causes, been murdered, or at least been seriously wounded.

1840: William Henry Harrison dies within a month of the election.
1860: Abraham Lincoln assassinated during his second term in 1865.
1880: James Garfield assassinated in 1881.
1900: William McKinley assassinated in 1901.
1920: Warren Harding succumbs to a stroke in 1923.
1940: Franklin Roosevelt suffers a fatal stroke in 1945.
1960: John Kennedy assassinated in 1960.
1980: Ronald Reagen is wounded in an assassination attempt in 1981. Though his wounds are more severe than Garfield's in 1881, he survives because of the modern medical treatment.
2000: George W. Bush?.

Someone should come up with a more catchy name for this curse. William Henry Harrison was called "Old Tippecanoe", so maybe you could derive something from that. Any suggestions?

[Mekku]

Old Tippecurse?

[Teemu]

Älkää nyt viitsikö. En ole ymmärtänyt tätä "kuka tahansa on parempi kuin Yrjö" -retoriikkaa, jota olen saanut kuulla pitkin vuotta. Vaikka olen itsekin tyytymätön USA:n toimintaan useissa asioissa, lienee syytä ottaa lusikka kauniiseen käteen: Bush Jr. on rehellinen ja suora periaatteen mies, jonka arvomaailma on monissa asioissa sama kuin miljoonien ja taas miljoonien amerikkalaisten. Ja jo pitkään on valitettu idealismin ja periaatteiden katoamista politiikasta. Amerikka todisti tämän valituksen turhaksi, sillä jos talous ja sosiaaliturva olisivat ratkaisseet, olisi Pennsylvania Avenuelle valittu Kerry.